Nomads Twos have a rueful day at Coldhams

(Massive hat-tip to Morty for his superb match reports recently - much appreciated - and I hope we can admire his fine penmanship in the near future....)

Men's Twos were the only Nomads fixture that took place as Storm Dennis rolled through. In the end, it was a damp squib - somewhat breezy with drizzle setting in sometime afterwards - a weather report which matched Nomads play.

With the toss won by City, they decided to start with the ball, so Nomes' skipper chose to play with the forecasted gale in the first half. Perhaps as a result, Nomads repertoire contained some well manoeuvred passing in patches.

In a elegant flowing play, a Nomads forward (was it Julian, was it Paul?) found himself in front of goal. His push went passed the keeper, but oh the ball stayed out?!? How could this occur? The answer lay with the umpire's clear indication of a P-flick. Paul steps up to the mark, the whistle blows and then ball is flung high passed the left stick - extraordinary!

More radical events were to occur. Mel found himself with the ball coming towards him unencumbered on his reverse stick side, plumb in front of goal - a situation that has yielded results on numerous occasions. Indeed, one doesn't hold one's breathe - we expected the finest. But oh no - there was a swipe and then some rolling around on the floor. Action replay was needed to truly appreciate what actually happened (Matthew, where were you??) but a miss. The competition for DoD was heating up!

Sadly, City bagged one from a short corner routine just before half time - a slip to the left and their striker managed to find the perfect slot between John and the right post man.

In the second half, Nomads game play never quite matched the flowing style and quality in the first half.

Their second goal came cruelly: we were marching out of our half with the ball, all confident. Thom subbed himself off for Arthur, only for Nomads to lose the ball and for City to break. Arthur could only run into the D trailing his man by some 5m to observe him slot the final pass in.

Frantic DoD competitive rivalry occurred: Rick saw some green-tinged sideline observation. Young Spence captured even more observation by trying to come around the reverse stick side of their handy centre forward. Either Dave was recalling when he was a young slip of a lad and / or Dave hadn't calculated the chunkiness of the CF. Instead of nimbly overtaking the said CF and denying him Route 1 to goal, Dave ploughed straight through him, resulting in a penalty flick. 3-0.

Nomads did pick up a consolation goal from a short corner: the ball falling to Mel on the left slip who dutifully dispatch as per the instruction manual.

No doubt about Man of the Match though: John - some sterling, breath-taking, blushes-saving saves. As for DoD, debate will rage on the looong trip to Alford in two weeks' time.....